Managing communications for combined orders

ABSTRACT

In some examples, a service provider may determine that multiple merchants are within a threshold distance of each other. The service provider may send, to a buyer, item information about items offered by the multiple merchants. Further, based at least in part on the multiple merchants having been determined to be within the threshold distance of each other, the item information sent to the buyer may indicate that orders for items provided by the multiple merchants are available for combined delivery, e.g., as a single combined order. A first courier stationed near the merchants may pick up the items from the merchants and may handoff the items to a second courier who delivers the items to the buyer. Additionally, in some cases, the preparation of the multiple items may be timed to so that the items are ready for pickup at approximately the same time.

BACKGROUND

People enjoy eating quality food that is prepared by good restaurants.Nevertheless, sometimes people may not want to go to a restaurant, butinstead may prefer to have food delivered to them. To meet this demand,a courier may deliver food prepared by a restaurant to a customer at adelivery location. For example, a service may enable customers to orderfood items from any of a variety of restaurants, and may arrange forcouriers to deliver the food items from the restaurants to thecustomers. Conventionally, when a customer wants to order from multiplerestaurants, the customer might place a first order with a firstrestaurant, such as for having a pizza delivered, and might also place asecond order with a second restaurant, such as for having Chinese fooddelivered. This can result in duplication of delivery services andadditional cost to the customer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similaror identical items or features.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system enabling ordering from multiplemerchants for combined delivery according to some implementations.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of determining a group of multiplemerchants for combined order deliveries according to someimplementations.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of including a third courier forfulfilling combined order deliveries according to some implementations.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example graphic user interface for presentation ofmerchant and item information on a buyer device according to someimplementations.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example framework for enablingcombined orders from multiple merchants according to someimplementations.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for enablingcombined orders from multiple merchants according to someimplementations.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for determininga group of merchants for combining deliveries according to someimplementations.

FIG. 8 illustrates select components of one or more example servicecomputing devices according to some implementations.

FIG. 9 illustrates select components of an example merchant deviceaccording to some implementations.

FIG. 10 illustrates select components of an example buyer deviceaccording to some implementations.

FIG. 11 illustrates select components of an example courier deviceaccording to some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technology herein includes novel arrangements and techniques forenabling buyers to place orders for items from multiple merchants forcombined delivery. For instance, a service provider may determine thatmultiple merchants are within a threshold distance of each other. Basedon this determination, the service provider may send, to a buyer, iteminformation about items offered by the multiple merchants. Based atleast in part on the multiple merchants having been determined to bewithin the threshold distance of each other, the item information sentto the buyer may indicate that orders for items provided by the multiplemerchants are available for combined delivery, e.g., as a singlecombined order delivered together.

A buyer device may present a graphic user interface (GUI) that includesthe information about the items available to be ordered from themultiple merchants for inclusion in the same delivery order. Forexample, the GUI may identify merchants that are in the same combinedordering group so that the buyer is able to combine items from thesemerchants as desired when creating an order to have the items deliveredtogether. Thus, the buyer is able to select a combination of items fromdifferent merchants in a single order that is delivered together in thesame delivery, which may eliminate additional delivery fees, duplicationof services, and the like.

In some cases, preparation of items being prepared by differentmerchants for the same order may be coordinated to be completed by therespective merchants at approximately the same time so that the itemsfor the order are fresh when picked up by the courier. For instance, theservice provider may receive, from each merchant device, an indicationof a current load on the merchant, such as the number of orders that themerchant is currently preparing or will be preparing in the near future.As an example, the service provider may receive an indication of a totalnumber of orders that have been received by the merchant, includingdelivery orders, walk-in orders, or other types of orders. Thus, whendetermining the preparation times for the ordered items, the serviceprovider may take into consideration the current load on each of themerchants. The service provider may use this information to predictpreparation times for each item ordered, and to provide a target pickuptime to each merchant for each item being prepared by that merchant.Accordingly, pickup times of items can be coordinated so that a firstitem prepared by a first merchant does not spoil while a second item inthe order is still being prepared by a second merchant, or vice versa.

As one example, the service provider may receive, from the buyer device,an order for a first item offered by a first merchant and a second itemoffered by a second merchant of the multiple merchants in the combinedordering group. The service provider may determine a predicted firstpreparation time for the first item and a predicted second preparationtime for the second item. Based on the first item having a longerpredicted preparation time than the second item, the service providermay send, to the first merchant, a requested pickup time for the firstitem, which may be based on the current time plus the predictedpreparation time for the first item. In response to receivingconfirmation of the first pickup time or a revised first pickup timefrom the first merchant if the preparation will take substantiallylonger or shorter than predicted, the service provider may send to thesecond merchant a requested second preparation time for the second item,which may be based on the first pickup time information received fromthe first merchant, i.e., the requested first pickup time or the revisedfirst pickup time. The service provider may receive a confirmation ofthe second pickup time or a revised second pickup time for the seconditem from the second merchant. If the revised second pickup timeindicated by the second merchant exceeds the first pickup time by athreshold amount, the service provider may send an updated first pickuptime to the first merchant, such as for pushing back the preparation ofthe first item so that the pickup time for the first item canapproximately coincide with the pickup time for the second item.

Based on the confirmation information received from the first merchantand the second merchant, the service provider knows when the first itemand second item will be ready for pick up. The service provider maysend, to a first courier device associated with a first courier, orderinformation to enable the first courier to pick up the first item fromthe first merchant and the second item from the second merchant. Forinstance, the service provider may station the first courier at or nearto a handoff location so that the first courier can pick up items fromthe merchants and deliver the items to other couriers at the handofflocation. The service provider may also send order information to asecond courier who will pick up the ordered items at the handofflocation and deliver the ordered items to the buyer at the deliverylocation specified by the buyer. In some examples, rather than being inthe same fixed location every day, the handoff location may beestablished temporarily based on the GPS location of the first courier.Thus, the handoff location may not be a stationary geographic point, butmay be changed as the location of the first courier changes, such asbased on current conditions in the area of the group of merchants. Inthis case, the service provider may receive location information fromthe first courier device and instruct the second courier on where topick up the items from the first courier.

In some cases, the service provider may use clustering techniques todetermine a group of merchants who have pickup locations that are withina threshold distance of each other. As one example, the thresholddistance may be determined based on a courier being able to pick upitems at multiple merchant locations within a short period of time, suchas less than 5 minutes. Further, in some examples, a centroid of thecluster may be determined and a recommended handoff location may bedetermined based in part on the centroid location, while also takinginto consideration other factors such as accessibility by the othercourier(s) who will deliver the items to the buyers.

In addition, in some cases, one or more additional couriers may beutilized. For instance, a first courier may act as a runner between themerchants and the handoff location, while a third courier may remain atthe handoff location to receive the ordered items from the firstcourier. The third courier may ensure that orders are complete, maypackage and label orders, and may handoff the ordered items to secondcouriers who will deliver the ordered items to the buyers.

Furthermore, as another example, a first item may be ordered from afirst merchant by a first buyer for delivery to a first deliverylocation, and contemporaneously, a second item may be ordered from asecond merchant by a second buyer for delivery to a second deliverylocation. For example, the service provider may instruct at least one ofthe merchants to time the preparation of the respective items so that acourier is able to pick up the items at approximately the same pickuptime. Thus, a courier may pick up the first item and the second itemfrom the merchants and may transport the items together to the handofflocation.

In some cases, the courier who picked up the items may be stationed atthe handoff location, while in other cases, another courier may bestationed at the handoff location (i.e., the third courier discussedabove). If the buyer delivery locations are within a threshold proximityof each other, a single second courier may pick up the first item andthe second item from the handoff location and may deliver the items tothe first delivery location and the second delivery location,respectively. Alternatively, if the respective delivery locations arenot within the threshold proximity of each other (e.g., more than 5-10minutes of courier travel time apart), one second courier may deliverthe first item, and another second courier may deliver the second item.

Accordingly, some implementations herein enable the creation of asynthetic combined restaurant by establishing a handoff location at anylocation where there is a cluster of merchants within a thresholddistance of each other. The technology herein provides a novel systemand environment in which buyers are able to order items from two or moredifferent merchants and have the items delivered together as a combinedorder, such as without incurring any additional delivery charge forordering from multiple merchants. As one example, the buyer may be ableto order items from any merchants in a group of merchants that arewithin a threshold distance of each other. As another example, multipledifferent buyers may order respective different items from differentmerchants and the transport of the different items may be combined bythe service provider to increase delivery efficiency and reduce deliverycosts. Thus, the techniques herein may be used to dynamically and/orspontaneously create a conglomerate merchant from a group of otherwisedisparate merchants, and may enable buyers to select items from anycombination of the merchants in the group for creating a combined order.Further, the service provider may be able to combine separately receivedorders dynamically, as the orders are received, for enabling combinedpickup and/or combined transport.

Additionally, some implementations herein provide technologicalinnovations that enable people to participate as couriers in a new typeof crowdsourced service economy. With the technology herein, essentiallyany person with a mobile device is able to immediately become a courier,or cease to be a courier, in a courier network that provides deliveryservices for delivery of items from merchants to buyers. Further,through the interaction of the plurality of computing devices, mobiledevices, and location sensors, implementations herein are able todetermine the locations of merchants and/or track the movement ofcouriers throughout a service region over time, and can use thisinformation to assist in predicting courier travel times, such as tovarious delivery locations.

As used herein, an order may include a request submitted by a buyer forthe acquisition of food items and/or other goods (referred to herein asitems) from a merchant. Further, a merchant may include a restaurant orany other business or other entity engaged in the offering of items fordelivery to buyers. Actions attributed to a merchant herein may includeactions performed by employees or other agents of the merchant and,thus, no distinction is made herein between merchants and theiremployees unless specifically discussed. In addition, a buyer mayinclude any entity that purchases items from a merchant. Buyers may becustomers or potential customers of a particular merchant. The servicemay receive payment from a buyer for an order and the service mayprovide payment to the merchant for the order. Further, the service mayprovide payment to the courier for delivering the order.

For discussion purposes, some example implementations are described inthe environment of enabling buyers to place orders for items frommultiple merchants for delivery together as a single delivery. However,implementations herein are not limited to the particular examplesprovided, and may be extended to other service environments, othersystem architectures, other types of goods, other courier arrangements,and so forth, as will be apparent to those of skill in the art in lightof the disclosure herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 enabling a delivery order frommultiple merchants according to some implementations. The system 100includes one or more service computing devices 102 of a service provider104 that may receive, over one or more networks 106, order information108 from at least one buyer 110. For instance, while a single buyer 110is shown for clarity in this example, a large number of buyers 110 mayuse the system 100 for placing delivery orders. Thus, the orderinformation 108 may include information about at least one order placedby at least one buyer 110. Based on the order information 108 receivedfrom a particular buyer 110, the service computing device 102 may sendorder information 112 to particular merchants 114 of a plurality ofmerchants 114(1)-114(M). For example, the buyer 110 may be able to orderfrom multiple selected merchants as a single order. Each selectedmerchant 114 may receive at least a designated portion the orderinformation 112 and may respond with merchant information 116. Forinstance, the merchant information 116 from each selected merchant 114may include confirmation information to confirm that the particularorder has been received and will be prepared by the responding merchant114.

The order information 112 sent to each merchant 114 may identify one ormore items 118 ordered by the buyer 110 from the selected merchant 114.For instance, each merchant 114(1)-114(M) may offer one or morerespective items 118(1)-118(M), which may be ordered by the buyer 110for delivery. In some cases, the order information 112 may also specifya time at which the order is to be picked up by a first courier 120(1)of a plurality of couriers 120(1), 120(2), . . . , 120(L). For instance,the service provider 104 may predict the preparation time for each item118 included in the order. The merchant information 116 sent by eachmerchant 114 to the service computing device 102 may confirm that arespective item will be ready by the respective pickup time specified bythe service computing device 102, or may provide a revised pickup time.In some cases, based on the predicted preparation time for a first itembeing prepared by a first merchant, the service provider may requestthat a second merchant delay the preparation of a second item so thatthe pickup times for the first and second items may be closer together,e.g., approximately the same time. Alternatively, in other examples, theorder information 112 sent to the merchant 114 may include an inquiry asto when the ordered item 118 will be prepared and ready for pick up, andthe merchant 114 may include with the merchant information 116 aspecified time at which the order will be ready for pickup.

In response to receiving the merchant information 116 from theparticular merchant 114, the service computing device 102 may send firstorder information 122(1) to the first courier 120(1) who will pick upthe ordered items from the selected merchants 114. The service computingdevice 102 may further send second order information 122(2) to a secondcourier 120(2) who will pick up the ordered items from the first courier120(1) at a handoff location 123 and deliver the ordered items to thebuyer 110 who placed the order. For instance, each merchant114(1)-114(M) may be associated with a respective merchant pickuplocation 124(1)-124(M), which may typically be the merchant's place ofbusiness. Furthermore, each buyer 110 may be associated with arespective delivery location 126 to which the order is to be delivered.

In some examples, the service provider 104 may determine subsets of themerchants 114(1)-114(M) as combined ordering groups from whom the buyer110 is able to order items as a single order. For instance, as discussedadditionally below, the service provider 104 may use clusteringtechniques or other techniques to determine a group of the merchantsthat are within a threshold distance of each other. For instance, theservice provider 104 may identify the group of merchants that are withina threshold distance of each other, and may station the first courier120(1) at a handoff location 123 close to or within the group. When abuyer orders items 118 from multiple merchants 114 in the group, thefirst courier 120(1) may pick up the ordered items 118 from thesemerchants 114 for the particular order and return to the handofflocation 123. The second courier 120(2) may pick up the items 118 forthe particular order at the handoff location 123 and may deliver theordered items 118 together as a single delivery to the buyer 110 at thedelivery location 126.

The first order information 122(1) sent to the first courier 120(1) mayinclude the pickup location 124 of each merchant 114 that is preparingan item for the order, and the respective pickup time at which the firstcourier is to pick up each item from each merchant 114. The orderinformation 122(2) sent to the second courier 120(2) may include thehandoff location 123 for the order, the handoff time, i.e., the time atwhich the first courier is expected to arrive at the handoff locationwith the order, and the delivery location 126 for the order. In someexamples, the order information 122(2) may further include a contracttime, i.e., a delivery time by which the service provider 104 has agreedto have the ordered items 118 delivered to the buyer 110 at the deliverylocation 126.

In the illustrated example, the service computing device 102 of theservice provider 104 is able to communicate with merchant devices128(1)-128(M) over the one or more networks 106. Each merchant device128(1)-128(M) may be associated with a respective merchant114(1)-114(M). Each merchant device 128(1)-128(M) may be a computingdevice, such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, smart phone, or the like, andmay include a respective instance of a merchant application130(1)-130(M) that executes on the respective merchant device128(1)-128(M). For example, the merchant application 130 may beconfigured to communicate with the service computing device 102, such asfor receiving the order information 112 and for sending the merchantinformation 116. In some examples, the merchant application 130 and theservice computing device 102 may communicate with each other via one ormore application programming interfaces (APIs).

Further, the merchant device 128 may include one or more output devices,such as speakers (not shown in FIG. 1), that the merchant application130 may use to audibly notify the respective merchant 114 that an orderhas been received. Additionally, or alternatively, the merchant device128 may include a display (not shown in FIG. 1) that the merchantapplication 130 may use for presenting the order information 112 to themerchant 114. For instance, the merchant application 130 on the merchantdevice 128 may present the order information 112 in one or more graphicuser interfaces (GUIs).

In some examples, the merchant application 130 may provide point-of-sale(POS) functionality to the merchant device 128 to enable the merchant114 to accept payments from walk-in/walk-up customers using the merchantdevice 128. Alternatively, in some examples, the merchant device 128 mayinclude a fax machine and the merchant 114 may receive the orderinformation 112 via a facsimile transmission from the service computingdevice 102. As still another example, the merchant device 128 mayinclude a computing device that is configured to receive orderinformation via email, instant messaging, or other electroniccommunication. As still another example, the merchant device 128 mayinclude a phone, and the merchant device 128 may receive the orderinformation 112 via an SMS text message, voicemail, telephone call, orthe like.

In some examples, the merchant application 130 may keep track of ordersreceived by the respective merchant 114. For example, the merchant 114may receive orders for delivery from the service computing device 102.The merchant 114 also may receive orders from customers who walk in orwalk up to the merchant's place of business and/or place orders to eatin or carry out. Thus, the merchant information 116 sent to the servicecomputing device 102 may indicate a current load for each merchant 114based on the number of orders received by the merchant 114 over anygiven time. The service computing device 102 may use this merchant loadinformation when calculating preparation times for ordered items.

In addition, in some cases, the merchant information 116 may includeinventory information for the respective merchant. For instance, if aparticular merchant is out of a particular item, the item informationsent to the buyers may exclude any items that are not currently ininventory and/or indicate that these items are not currently availablefor ordering.

In addition, the buyer 110 may be associated with a buyer device 132that may execute a respective instance of a buyer application 134. Forexample, the buyer 110 may use the buyer device 132, such as a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computing device, laptop, desktop, orthe like, and the buyer device 132 may have installed thereon the buyerapplication 134. The buyer application 134 may enable the buyer 110 toselect one or more of the items 118 to purchase from one or more of themerchants 114 to be delivered to the buyer 110 by one or more of thecouriers 120. For example, the buyer application 134 may present one ormore GUIs on a display for enabling the buyer 110 to select one or moreof the items 118 for an order.

In some cases, the delivery location 126 of the buyer 110 may bedetermined by a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver (not shown inFIG. 1) or other location sensor onboard the buyer device 132. Thislocation information may be transmitted to the service computing deviceas the indicated delivery location 126. Thus, the system 100 may employa plurality of computing devices, mobile devices, and location sensorsto provide a novel technological arrangement that provides buyersvarying options for ordering items from one or more merchants, asdiscussed additionally below.

Further, the buyer application 134 may enable the buyer 110 to place anorder from one or more merchants 114 in advance, such as for schedulingan order for delivery at a later time on the same day, at a specifiedtime on a future day, or the like. For instance, the buyer 110 may beable to place an order through the buyer application 134 to have lunchdelivered at a specified delivery location by a specified time on aspecified day.

The buyer application 134 may further enable the buyer 110 to make apayment for an order for items from multiple merchants as a singletransaction using the buyer application 134. For instance, the serviceprovider 104 may charge a buyer account associated with the buyer 110for an amount associated with a particular order. In some examples, thebuyer application 134 and the service computing device 102 maycommunicate with each other via one or more APIs. Additionally, oralternatively, the buyer application 134 may be a web browser, or thelike, and the buyer 110 may navigate to a website associated with theservice provider 104, and may use the website associated with theservice provider 104 to place an order. In this case, the website mayprovide at least some of the functionality attributed to the buyerapplication 134 herein.

In addition, the couriers 120(1)-120(L) may be associated withrespective courier devices 136(1)-136(L) that may execute respectiveinstances of courier applications 138(1)-138(L). For example, couriers120 may use courier devices 136, such as smart phones, tablet computers,wearable computing devices, laptops, or the like, and these courierdevices 136 may have installed thereon the courier application 138. Thecourier application 138 may be configured to receive the orderinformation 122 from the service computing device 102 to provide aparticular courier 120 with information for picking up a particularorder from a merchant's pickup location 124 or the handoff location 123.The courier application 138 may further enable the courier 120 torespond to the service computing device 102 to confirm receipt of orderinformation 122.

Additionally, in some cases, the courier application 138 may provide theservice computing device 102 with an indication of a current location ofa particular courier 120. For instance, one or more location sensorsassociated with each courier device 136 of an active courier 120 mayprovide location information and, based on this, the courier application138 may send location information to the service computing device 102,such as by providing an indication of a geographic location of eachcourier device of each active courier. Thus, a subset of courier devices136 associated with active couriers may communicate with the servicecomputing device 102, and may send location information obtained fromone or more location sensors associated with each courier device 136,such as a GPS receiver (not shown in FIG. 1).

In some cases, another subset of courier devices 136 associated with theinactive couriers may be periodically pinged by the service computingdevice 102 to determine interest in becoming active and, if so,requesting current location information of the associated inactivecourier. Couriers who are interested in being activated may allow theircourier devices 136 to respond with their location information, whilethose who are not interested in being activated may keep their locationinformation private by not responding. In some examples, the courierapplication 138 and the service computing device 102 may communicatewith each other via one or more APIs. Alternatively, in other examples,the courier device 136 may receive the order information 122 via an SMStext message, a voicemail, a telephone call, or the like.

The one or more networks 106 can include any appropriate network,including a wide area network, such as the Internet; a local areanetwork, such an intranet; a wireless network, such as a cellularnetwork, a local wireless network, such as Wi-Fi and/or short-rangewireless communications, such as BLUETOOTH® and BLUETOOTH® low energy; awired network, including fiber optics and Ethernet; or any other suchnetwork, or any combination thereof. Accordingly, the one or morenetworks 106 may include both wired and/or wireless communicationtechnologies. Components used for such communications can depend atleast in part upon the type of network, the environment selected, orboth. Protocols for communicating over such networks are well known andwill not be discussed herein in detail. Accordingly, the servicecomputing device 102, the merchant devices 128, the buyer devices 132,and/or the courier devices 136 are able to communicate over the one ormore networks 106 using wired or wireless connections, and combinationsthereof.

In the illustrated example, the service computing device 102 includes anorder processing module 140 that may be executed on the servicecomputing device 102 to provide, at least in part, the order processingfunctionality attributed to the service computing device 102. The orderprocessing module 140 may receive the order information 108 from thebuyers 110 and may associate the order information 108 with buyerinformation 142 and merchant information 144. For instance, based onbuyer identifying information that may be included with the orderinformation 108, the order processing module 140 may associateparticular order information 108 with a particular buyer account. Theorder processing module 140 may access a buyer account included in thebuyer information 142 to charge a particular buyer account for aparticular order.

Furthermore, based on a particular merchant 114 identified by the orderinformation 108, the order processing module 140 may associate the orderinformation 108 with a merchant account of a particular merchant 114.The order processing module 140 may access the merchant account, whichmay be identified in the merchant information 144, to determine contactinformation for sending the order information 112 to the correctmerchant device 128 so that the particular merchant 114 can receive andprovide confirmation of the order. The order processing module 140 mayfurther access the merchant account of the particular merchant 114 tocredit payment to the particular merchant that prepares the order.

In addition, the order processing module 140 may access courierinformation 146 to determine courier contact information for sending theorder information 122 to particular couriers 120(1) and 120(2) of theplurality of couriers 120(1)-120(L). The particular couriers 120(1) and120(2) may use the courier application 138 on their respective courierdevices 136 to receive a respective message with information about theorder, and to respond with acceptance if the job assignment is accepted.The first courier 120(1) may subsequently pick up the ordered items fromthe respective merchants 114. For example, the first courier may bestationed or otherwise instructed to attend the handoff location 123,such as for picking up orders from the merchants and returning to thehandoff location 123 to meet the second courier 120(2).

As one non-limiting example, the group of merchants may be a pluralityof food trucks, such as at a food truck fair or food truck hub, may bemerchants having stands at a food festival, and so forth. Thus, in somecases, the merchants may be mobile or semi-mobile, and may be at alocation temporarily. In other examples, the merchants may be stationaryand may be at a permanent location. In some instances, in the case thatthe merchants are mobile, the handoff location may be established basedon a geographic location of the first courier. As one example, the firstcourier may set up a stand or the like to enable other couriers toeasily locate the handoff location 123. Thus, merchant combined orderinggroup and the handoff location may be created temporarily andspontaneously, and may change periodically, day-to-day, or the like. Inother examples, the group of merchants may include a food court, aclosely clustered group of independent merchants, such as within aneighborhood block, or the like.

The second courier 120(2) may pick up the ordered items from the firstcourier 120(1) at the handoff location 123 and deliver the ordered itemsto the particular buyer 110 at a specified delivery location 126. Whenthe second courier 120(2) has completed delivery of the ordered items tothe delivery location 126, the second courier 120(2) may use the courierapplication 138 to inform the order processing module 140 that thedelivery has been completed. The order processing module 140 may accessa courier account included in courier information 146 for the secondcourier 120(2) to credit the courier account of the second courier120(2) with payment for the delivery job. Similarly, the courier accountof the first courier 120(1) may also compensated on a per-order basis orby any other payment technique.

The order processing module 140 may store information associated witheach order as past order information 148. For instance the past orderinformation 148 may include a day of the week, date, and time of day atwhich each order is received from the respective buyer 110. The pastorder information 148 may further include, for each order: merchantidentifying information; buyer identifying information; items ordered;the pickup location 124; the handoff location 123, the delivery location126; preparation time for each item in the order; location of the firstcourier 120(1) when the first courier received the order; location ofthe second courier 120(2) when the second courier 120(2) accepted thejob for delivery of the order; predicted spoilage time for one or moreitems; time that the ordered items were picked up by the first courierand handed off to the second courier; time that the order was delivered;amount paid for the order; feedback including records of any complaintsor indications of spoilage; as well as other information, as discussedadditionally below.

The service computing device 102 may further include a combined orderingmodule 150 that may be executed by the service computing device 102 todetermine merchants 114 who are within a threshold distance of eachother and/or a potential handoff location 123. For example, the combinedordering module 150 may use clustering techniques or other suitablealgorithms for determining a combined ordering group of merchants fromwhom buyers may combine orders by ordering items from multiple merchantsin the group.

As discussed additionally below, the combined ordering module 150 maydetermine distances between pickup locations of a plurality ofmerchants, and may identify a cluster of merchants based on thedistances being less than a threshold distance. For instance, thecombined ordering module 150 may receive or otherwise access mappinginformation 152, such as from a web server 154, an internal database(not shown), or the like, to determine relative distances between thepickup locations of the merchants. Furthermore, the combined orderingmodule 150 may determine a centroid of the cluster, and may recommendthat a handoff location 123 be established based on the centroid, suchas near to the centroid or near to a suitable location determined basedon the centroid as well as other considerations. For instance, it may bedesirable for the handoff location 123 to be easily accessible by othercouriers while also being in a location that does not block traffic,pedestrians, or the like.

When a group of merchants for combined ordering has been identified, thecombined ordering module 150 may send item information 156 to the buyerapplication 134 to indicate that items from the merchants in thecombined ordering group may be combined in a single order, such aswithout incurring additional delivery charges, or the like. The buyerapplication 134 may receive the item information 156, and may presentthis information to the buyer in a GUI with an indication that combinedordering is available for the merchants in the identified group.

In addition, in response to receiving an order from the buyer 110 foritems from multiple merchants in a combined ordering group, the combinedordering module 150 may predict preparation times for each of theordered items so as to attempt to time the pickup times for the items tobe close to each other or otherwise approximately the same time. As oneexample, suppose that the buyer 110 orders a pizza from a firstmerchant, and French fries from a second merchant, and that thepreparation time for the pizza is predicted to be 15 minutes while thepreparation time for the French fries is predicted to be 4 minutes.Furthermore, suppose that the courier travel time between the firstmerchant pickup location and the second pickup merchant pickup locationis less than one minute. Accordingly, the combined ordering module 150may send order information to the first merchant with the order for thepizza and request confirmation that the pizza will be ready to be pickedup in 15 minutes. In response to receiving confirmation from the firstmerchant that the pizza will be ready in 15 minutes, the combinedordering module 150 may send order information 112 to the secondmerchant instructing the second merchant to prepare the French fries forpickup in 15 minutes, rather than right away, and delaying the start ofthe preparation of the French fries by approximately 10 minutes.Consequently, implementations herein may predict the preparation timesfor ordered items so that items combined in the same order may haveapproximately the same pickup times, thereby ensuring greater freshnessfor the items provided to the buyer and reducing the chances ofspoilage.

In some examples, the combined ordering module 150 may determinepredicted preparation times for the ordered items based on the pastorder information 148 and/or based on the merchant information 116received from the merchant device 128. For instance, as mentioned above,the combined ordering module 150 may determine the predicted preparationtime for the first item from past order information 148 that indicateshow long the first merchant 114 has taken to prepare similar items inthe past. In some examples, the merchant information 116 may include anindication of a current load on the merchant (e.g., a number of ordersreceived and still to be prepared by a particular merchant), and thisload information may be used when determining the predicted preparationtimes by determining past preparation times for the item under similarpast loads for the merchant. Thus, the combined ordering module 150 maydetermine, for a plurality of different times of day for a plurality ofdifferent days, and for a plurality of orders received for items over apast period of time, e.g., a past month, past two months, past year,etc., the actual preparation times for particular items offered by eachmerchant 114 in the combined ordering group.

Further, the combined ordering module 150 may receive an indication of acurrent load on the particular merchant based on not only deliveryorders received by the particular merchant but also on walk-in/walk-uporders or other types of orders received by the particular merchant andstill to be prepared. For example, if the particular merchant iscurrently very busy, the preparation times for the items being preparedby the merchant may be predicted to be longer than if the merchant isnot very busy. Accordingly, the merchant information 116 received fromthe merchant device 128 may indicate a current number of orders of alltypes that the particular merchant 114 has received. Comparing thismerchant load information with the past order information 148, such aspast preparation times for particular items when the merchant load wassimilar, may be used to provide an indication of the predictedpreparation times for each of the items available from the particularmerchant 114.

Additionally, or alternatively, the merchant information 116 provided tothe service computing device 102 from the merchant device 128 mayinclude a predicted preparation time for an ordered item, as determinedby the merchant who will be preparing the item. For instance, if theprediction by the merchant is different from the prediction determinedfrom the past order information or other techniques, the combinedordering module 150 may give priority to the predicted preparation timeindicated by the merchant. The combined ordering module 150 may then usethis predicted preparation time when requesting a pickup time for asecond item from a second merchant.

As one example, when receiving an order that combines multiple itemsfrom multiple merchants, the combined ordering module 150 may determinea first item in the order that is predicted to have the longestpreparation time. The combined ordering module 150 may requestconfirmation from the first merchant of a pickup time for the first itembased on the predicted preparation time before sending the orderinformation for the second item to the second merchant. Subsequently,after receiving confirmation of the first pickup time from the firstmerchant, the combined ordering module 150 may send the order for thesecond item to the second merchant and may request a particular pickuptime for the second item from the second merchant based on the firstpickup time for the first item. Similarly, if a third merchant will bepreparing a third item having a shorter predicted preparation time thanthe second item, the order information for the third item with arequested third pickup time may be sent to the third merchant in turnafter receiving confirmation of the requested second pickup time fromthe second merchant. If the second merchant is not able to meet therequested pickup time by more than a threshold amount of time, thecombined ordering module 150 may ask the first merchant to push back thepreparation of the first item by the amount of time that the preparationof the second item will be delayed.

Alternatively, in other examples, an entire order may be sent to eachmerchant having at least one item in the order. Based on this technique,each merchant may then discern which items the merchant is responsiblefor preparing, and may prepare the respective items accordingly.Further, as another alternative, one or more merchants might not haverespective merchant devices that receive the order information, andinstead a courier may manually deliver the respective orders to each ofthese merchants with whom an order has been placed.

Further, if a particular merchant has run out of a particular item, thismay be indicated by merchant inventory information received with themerchant information 116 from the particular merchant. Accordingly, theservice provider 104 may not include that particular item in the iteminformation 156 sent to the buyer device, or may otherwise indicate theparticular item to be unavailable. For instance, the service providermay receive inventory information from the merchant device on a regularbasis, such as when any inventory item is getting low or is fullydepleted. In some cases, the service provider 104 may also perform awholesale ordering function on behalf of particular merchants 114 torestock certain items when the inventory for those items falls below athreshold level. In some examples, the service provider 104 maydetermine that the inventory for an item is above a threshold level(e.g., greater than or equal to one) before sending information aboutthe item with the item information 156 sent to a buyer device.

Alternatively, rather than providing inventory information to theservice provider, the merchant may manually indicate that an item isunavailable. For example, when the merchant has run out of a particularitem, the merchant may send a notification to the service provider tonotify the service provider that the item is no longer available. If abuyer has placed an order for the particular item, the service providermay notify the buyer that a portion of the buyer's order is no longeravailable. Further, the service provider may update the item informationsent to the buyer devices to remove the particular item or to otherwiseindicate that the particular item is not currently available.

In addition, as another example, a first buyer 110 may order a firstitem 118 from a first merchant 114 for delivery to a first deliverylocation 126, and a second buyer 110 may order a second item 118 from asecond merchant 114 for delivery to a second delivery location 126. Thefirst merchant and the second merchant may be part of a combinedordering group of merchants that have been determined to be within athreshold distance of the each other. Further, the combined orderingmodule 150 may determine that the preparation of the first item and thepreparation of the second item can be timed so that pick up of the itemsand/or delivery of the items can be performed by a single courier.

As one example, the service provider may instruct the first merchantand/or the second merchant to time the preparation of the respectivefirst item and/or second item so that a courier may pick up the items atapproximately the same pickup time. Thus, a first courier 120(1) maypick up the first item and the second item from the respective merchantsand may transport the items together to the handoff location 123. Insome cases, the first courier 120(1) who picked up the items may bestationed at the handoff location 123, while in other examples anothercourier may be stationed at the handoff location (not shown in FIG. 1).

If the buyer delivery locations 126 are within a threshold proximity ofeach other, a single second courier 120(2) may pick up the first itemand the second item from the handoff location 123, and may deliver theitems to the first delivery location and the second delivery location,respectively. Alternatively, if the delivery locations are not withinthe threshold proximity of each other (e.g., more than 5-10 minutes ofcourier travel time apart from each other) one second courier maydeliver the first item, and another second courier may deliver thesecond item. Additionally, as another alternative, two differentcouriers may pick up the items from the two different merchants andtransport the items to the handoff location 123, and a single secondcourier may pick up the items from the handoff location and deliver theitems to the respective delivery locations if the respective deliverylocations are within the threshold proximity of each other.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example 200 of determining merchant groups forcombined ordering according to some implementations. In this example,the combined ordering module 150 may determine a combined ordering group202 of merchants 114 having pickup locations 124 within a thresholddistance of the pickup locations 124 of other merchants 114 within thegroup 202. For instance, for a plurality of merchants 124(1)-124(6), theservice computing device 102 may determine the distance between thepickup locations 124(1)-124(6), as indicated by arrows 204, and mayselect particular merchants to include within the combined orderinggroup 202 based on the distances being less than the threshold distance.

In some cases, the combined ordering module 150 may use clusteringtechniques to determine groups of pickup locations 124 that areclustered sufficiently close together so that a courier stationed at thecluster may travel between any of the pickup locations 124 within athreshold time corresponding to the threshold distance. Thus, thecombined ordering module 150 may ensure that the pickup location of anymerchant 114 included in the combined ordering group 202 is within thethreshold distance of the pickup location of any other merchant includedin the combined ordering group 202.

In the illustrated example, suppose that distance 204(1) between thethird pickup location 124(3) and the fifth pickup location 124(5) isless than the threshold distance, while the distance 204(2) between thefifth pickup location 124(5) and the sixth pickup location 124(6) isgreater than the threshold distance. Accordingly, the sixth merchant114(6) may not be included in the combined ordering merchant group 202.This may be so even if the distance 204(3) between the sixth pickuplocation 124(6) and the third pickup location 124(3) is within thethreshold distance. Thus, in this example, the combined ordering group202 may include the first through the fifth merchants 114(1)-114(5), butnot the sixth merchant 114(6), as indicated by the dashed line.

The geographic locations of the pickup locations 124 of the merchants114 may be determined based on GPS information received from eachmerchant device, address information associated with each merchantaccount, other location information received from the merchant devices,or through any of various other techniques. For example, the merchantdevices may include GPS receivers able to provide location informationto the combined ordering module 150. As another example, the merchants114 may provide address information or other location information to thecombined ordering module 150. The combined ordering module 150 maydetermine the distances between the pickup locations 124 from mappinginformation, e.g., by entering the location information for eachmerchant into a mapping website, a mapping database, or through the useof other mapping information.

In some examples, the threshold distance may be determined so that apredicted courier travel time from any of the pickup locations 124 toany of the other pickup locations 124 is less than a threshold traveltime, such as two minute or less, three minutes or less, etc., which maybe inclusive of time to access the pickup location 124 and obtain anitem. For instance, if the combined ordering group 202 of merchants is agroup of food trucks, the first courier may be able to travel from,e.g., the third pickup location 124(3) to the fifth pickup location inless than a threshold courier travel time and this may correspond to thethreshold distance.

As an example, suppose that the buyer 110 places an order for a firstitem from the first merchant and a second item from the fifth merchant.The service computing device 102 receives the order and the combinedordering module 150 may predict a first preparation time, e.g., 15minutes, for the first item and a second preparation time, e.g., 5minutes, for the second item, such as based past order history andcurrent merchant load. To minimize the possibility of spoilage, thecombined ordering module 150 may send the first order to the firstmerchant and request confirmation that the first order will be ready in15 minutes. Upon receiving confirmation, the combined ordering module150 may send the order for the second item to the fifth merchant, with arequest that preparation of the second order be delayed and be preparedfor pickup in 15 minutes.

Further, the combined ordering module 150 may send first orderinformation to the first courier 120(1) to request that the firstcourier 120(1) pick up the first item and the second item in 15 minutes.Additionally, the combined ordering module 150 may send second orderinformation to a second courier 120(2) to request that the secondcourier 120(2) pick up the first item and the second item from the firstcourier at the handoff location 123 in 15 minutes and deliver the itemsto buyer 110 at the delivery location 126.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example 300 including the combined ordering group202 according to some implementations. In this example, suppose that thecombined ordering group 202 is the same as discussed above with respectto FIG. 2. In this example, first courier 120(1) may serve as a runnerwho may transport items from the merchants 114(1)-114(5) to a thirdcourier 120(3), who may remain stationed at the handoff location 123.For instance, in the case that there are a large number of orders to beprepared by the combined ordering group 202, the first courier 120(1)may pick up the items from the various merchants 114(1)-114(5) anddeliver the items to the handoff location 123. The third courier 120(3)may organize the orders at the handoff location 123, such as by labelingand packaging the orders for delivery, and may handoff the orders to thesecond couriers 120(2) who will deliver the orders to the buyers.

In the example discussed above with respect to FIG. 2, the buyer ordersa first item from the first merchant 114(1) and a second item from thefifth merchant 114(5). Thus, when the first item and the second item arescheduled to be ready for pickup, the first courier 120(1) may go thefifth pickup location 124(5) to pick up the second item and to the firstpickup location 124(1) to pick up the first item (or vice versa), andmay deliver these items to the third courier 120(3) at the handofflocation 123. The second courier 120(2) receives the items from thethird courier 120(1) at the handoff location 123 and delivers the itemsto the buyer 110 at the buyer location 126.

Additionally, in some examples, the third courier 120(3) (or the firstcourier in cases in which there is not a third courier) mayspontaneously establish the handoff location 123. For example, the thirdcourier 120(3) may receive information about a recommended handofflocation from the service computing device 102. For instance, therecommended handoff location may be determined based in part on ageographic centroid of the merchant group 202, but may further bedetermined based on other considerations such as traffic flow andaccessibility to the second courier 120(2). Accordingly, the thirdcourier 120(3) may receive the recommended handoff location and maysubsequently use his or her own judgment for determining an optimallocation for the handoff location. In some examples, the third couriermay set up a stand, table, or the like, at the handoff location, and maynotify the service computing device of the location of the handofflocation, such as through GPS coordinates provided by a GPS receiveronboard the courier device of the third courier 120(3). Thus,implementations herein enable dynamic creation of a handoff location 123and further enable subsequent relocation of the handoff location 123 asneeded or desired. For instance, if business at the group of merchants202 is slow, the first and second couriers may relocate and startfilling orders for a different combined ordering group of merchants at adifferent location.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example GUI 400 presenting merchant information ona display 402 associated with the buyer device 132 according to someimplementations. In this example, suppose that the buyer device hasreceived item information from the service computing device, such asdiscussed above with respect to FIG. 1. The item information may includeinformation related to merchants in a combined ordering group. Asdiscussed above, the buyer may be able to order items from any of themerchants in the group as a combined order. For example, in a combinedorder, the ordered items may be delivered together by a courier to thedelivery location. Further, in some cases, the buyer may not incuradditional delivery fees, or the like, when ordering a combined orderfrom multiple merchants, and may be able to pay for the order as asingle financial transaction. In this example, information about threeof the merchants in a combined ordering group is presented on thedisplay 402, and the buyer may be able to scroll up/down and/orleft/right to view additional merchants in the combined ordering group.

As illustrated, at 404, the GUI 400 may indicate that the buyer is ableto create an order by combining items from the merchants included in thecombined ordering group. The GUI 400 may further present informationrelated to each merchant and a representative item offered by eachmerchant, such as a popular item. Thus, in this example, the GUI 400includes the name of a first merchant 406, i.e., the Tex-Mex Restaurantalong with the name and price of a representative item 408, i.e., theCalifornia Burrito, and an image 410 of the representative item. The GUI400 further includes the name of a second merchant 412, i.e., the BurgerRestaurant along with the name and price of a representative item 414,i.e., the Cheeseburger with Fries, and an image 416 of therepresentative item. The GUI 400 further includes the name of a thirdmerchant 418, i.e., the Italian Restaurant along with the name and priceof a representative item 420, i.e., Large 3-Topping Pizza, and an image424 of the representative item. Additionally, the buyer may be able totap on, or otherwise select, an area of the display 402 to view otheritems available from a particular one of the merchants.

In addition, the GUI 400 may include a delivery location 126, such as anaddress to which the order is to be delivered. For example, when thebuyer opens or otherwise accesses the buyer application 134, the buyerapplication 134 may initially request that the buyer indicate thedesired delivery location 126. The buyer application 134 may send thisinformation to the service computing device 102. In some cases, thedelivery location 126 may be the current location of the buyer device132, which may be determined at least in part by one or more locationsensors, such as a GPS receiver (not shown in FIG. 4) onboard the buyerdevice 132. In other cases, the buyer 110 may enter an address as thedelivery location, may proceed with a default address, may select apreviously used address, or the like. Further, the buyer application 134may, by default, assume that the buyer is interested in ordering now forimmediate delivery, i.e., as soon as the order can be prepared anddelivered. If the buyer prefers a later delivery time or date, the buyermay select one or more options in the GUI to select a later time or day,and this time information may be sent to the service computing device102 with the delivery location information.

In the illustrated example, current time is indicated at 426 to be 11:58AM. In some examples, when presenting information about particularitems, the GUI 400 may further present an estimated time at which theparticular item can be delivered to the delivery location 126. Forexample, as discussed above, the service provider may determine apredicted preparation time for each item and may further determine apredicted courier travel time from the handoff location to the deliverylocation for providing an approximate time within which the particularitem may be delivered to the delivery location. In some cases, theservice provider may determine a predicted courier travel time from thehandoff location to the delivery location 126 by taking intoconsideration current local conditions such as traffic and weather.Further, the service provider may add in an estimated time for the firstcourier to pick up the items from the merchants, return to the handofflocation, and handoff the items to the second courier when determiningthe predicted courier travel time to the delivery location 126.

To place an order, the buyer may select the name or the representationof one or more of the items, such as by tapping on a particular itemrepresentation or by tapping on an area of the display 402 associatedwith the particular item. The buyer may then subsequently be presentedwith a pop-up window, a separate GUI, or the like (not shown in FIG. 4),asking the buyer to select or confirm a delivery time interval and pricefor the selected item(s). Accordingly, the buyer may select any of theavailable items to be delivered. The service computing device mayreceive the buyer's selection and send order information about thebuyer's selection to the merchant device(s) of the correspondingmerchant(s). For example, the order information may be sent directly tothe particular merchant device, along with a requested preparation time,and queued by the merchant application with other orders that arereceived by that merchant.

Further, the GUI 400 is just one example of a possible GUI forpresenting item information according to some implementations herein.Numerous other variations will be apparent to those of skill in the arthaving the benefit of the disclosure herein.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual block diagram 500 illustrating an example ofdetermining merchant groups for combined orders and determiningpredicted preparation times for ordered items according to someimplementations. In this example, the combined ordering module 150 mayreceive the past order information 148 including merchant historicinformation 502, buyer historic information 504, and courier historicinformation 506. In addition, the combined ordering module 150 mayreceive map information 152 discussed above with respect to FIG. 1.Additionally, the combined ordering module 150 may receive current andrecent courier location information 508. Further, while several types ofinformation that may be used by the combined ordering module 150 areillustrated, in other examples, other or additional types of informationmay be used by the combined ordering module 150, as discussed above,and/or as will be apparent to those of skill in the art having thebenefit of the disclosure herein.

The merchant historic information 502 includes historic orderinformation related to the merchants, e.g., various types of informationrelated to past orders filled by the merchants that participate in theservice of the service provider 104. For instance, the merchant historicinformation 502 may include order loads 510 from each merchant atparticular times on particular days of the week, particular dates, andthe like, indicating how many orders each merchant was fulfilling atethe particular times.

Further, the merchant historic information 502 may include past itempreparation times 512 for each item offered by each merchant. As oneexample, each merchant may initially specify an expected preparationtime for each item or each category of item offered by the merchant whenthe merchant joins the service. In some cases, the merchants or theservice provider may categorize items into preparation-time-based itemcategories, such that items having similar preparation times arecategorized into the same item category. Subsequently, as the serviceprovider determines actual item preparation times for particular itemsoffered by each merchant, and further, the order load 510 on eachmerchant when the preparation times are determined, the combinedordering module 150 may use a current merchant order load to determine apredicted preparation time for an item for a current order, as discussedadditionally below.

Further, the merchant historic information 502 may include informationabout the merchant groups 514 that have been identified for combinedordering in the past. For instance, the merchant groups information 514may identify the merchants making up combined ordering groups, whetherthe groups are permanent or temporary, locations of the merchants ineach group, number of combined orders received for each group, and soforth.

Additionally, the buyer historic information 504 includes historic orderinformation related to the buyers. Examples of buyer historicinformation 504 may include order times 516, e.g., a time of day, day ofthe week, and date on which each order was placed. The buyer historicinformation 504 may further include delivery locations 518 to which eachorder was delivered, and spoilage feedback 520. For instance, feedbackmay be received from the buyer devices that may indicate if one or moreitems from an order spoiled prior to delivery to the buyer. Spoilage maybe indicated by items that are of a degraded quality. This spoilagefeedback 520 may be used to adjust or otherwise change certainthresholds used herein. For example, if spoilage feedback 520 isconsistently received for an item in an order that is picked up beforeanother item in the same order, this spoilage feedback 520 may indicatethat the threshold distance between the merchants in a combined orderinggroup might need to be reduced.

Further, the courier historic information 506 includes historic orderinformation related to the couriers. For example, the courier historicinformation 506 may include delivery travel times 522, which mayindicate the time that an order was picked up from the handoff locationand the time that the order was delivered to the delivery location, andmay further include how long it took a courier to arrive at the handofflocation after picking items from the merchant pickup locations.Additionally, location information 524 may include locations ofindividual couriers at different times of day, for different days of theweek in different parts of the service region. For instance, the courierlocation information 524 may indicate speeds at which couriers are ableto travel on different streets in the service region at different timesof day, thereby providing an indication of traffic information and anindication of predicted delivery travel times at different times of dayand different days of the week. The location information 524 may furtherindicate how far each courier had to travel after picking up each orderto make delivery of the order.

In some examples, the courier application may automatically send courierlocations 508 to the combined ordering module 150 on a periodic basiswhile the associated courier is on-duty or otherwise active.Alternatively, the combined ordering module 150 may periodically pingthe courier devices of active couriers to determine the couriers'current locations. The received courier locations 508 may indicatecurrent courier geographic locations, travel speeds and conditions, andmay be stored as location information 524. Each courier device mayinclude one or more location sensors, such as a GPS receiver, orcommunication interfaces that can determine (e.g., from cell towers orwireless access points) a geographic location of the courier device.

In addition, the courier historic information 506 may include pasthandoff locations 526, which may indicate locations at which a courierwas stationed or otherwise performed handoffs of combined orders.Further, the handoff locations 526 may include information about thehandoff locations, such as convenience for other couriers to pickuporders, amount of courier travel time from the handoff location to themerchant pickup locations of the merchants in the corresponding merchantcombined ordering group, travel time to buyer delivery locations fromthe handoff location, and so forth.

In some implementations, the combined ordering module 150 may employ oneor more computational models 528 for determining merchant groups 530 forcombined ordering and/or for determining predicted item preparationtimes 532 for various different items offered by various differentmerchants. For instance, the combined ordering module 150 may determineclusters of merchant pickup locations that are within a thresholddistance of each other. As a non-limiting example, the thresholddistance may be several hundred yards or less such that a courier onfoot may travel between multiple merchants in several minutes and returnto a handoff location.

Typically, for stationary merchants, after a combined ordering merchantgroup has been determined, the combined ordering module may not need todetermine the merchant group again unless a parameter changes, such asthe threshold distance changes, or if a new merchant begins doingbusiness sufficiently near to the group to be added to the group.Accordingly, already-determined merchant groups may be known from themerchant groups 514 included in the merchant historic information 502.On the other hand, for mobile merchants such as food trucks, or othertypes of mobile vendors, a combined ordering merchant group 530 may bedetermined temporarily by the combined ordering module 150. Forinstance, the combined ordering module 150 may receive current merchantpickup locations 534 for a plurality of merchants, such as by receivingGPS information from respective merchant devices of the respectivemerchants, or through other techniques such as by receiving anelectronic message including current address information or the like.

Accordingly, a new combined ordering merchant group 530 may bedetermined based on the received current merchant pickup locations 534being within a threshold distance of other merchant pickup locations. Asmentioned above, clustering techniques or other suitable algorithms maybe employed by the computational model 528 for determining merchantshaving pickup locations within the threshold distance of each other. Forinstance, when determining clusters of merchants, a plurality ofmerchant pickup locations 534 may be provided to the one or morecomputational models 528 such as in the form of longitude and latitudeGPS coordinates. The computational model(s) 528 may determine clustersof the pickup locations 534, such as based on any suitable clusteringalgorithm, e.g., density-based clustering, centroid-based clustering, orthe like. As one example, a clustering algorithm, such as the k-meansalgorithm, may be used to determine clusters of pickup locations basedat least in part on determining the distances between the respectivepickup locations.

Further, the computational model(s) 528 may employ the mappinginformation 152 when determining distances between respective geographiclocations. Furthermore, merchant group determining logic 536 may includeone or more algorithms, one or more computational models, a plurality ofdecision-making rules, determinative rules, business rules, or the likethat may receive information about an identified cluster of pickuplocations and may determine whether there is a viable merchant group,such as based on geographic conditions, and the like. For instance, twomerchants may be within the threshold distance of each other but if theyare on opposite sides of a river with no nearby bridge then they may notbe included in the same merchant group 530.

In addition, the one or more computational models 528 may determine acentroid of an identified cluster that may be used subsequently byhandoff location determining logic 538 when determining a recommendedhandoff location for a particular merchant group 530. For instance, acourier may be stationed close to the center of merchant group 530 ifpossible but the handoff location determining logic may determine that amore suitable location would be closer to a road that other couriers canuse for accessing the handoff location. Accordingly, the combinedordering module 150 may employ handoff location determining logic 538for determining recommended handoff locations 540 at which a courier maybe stationed to wait for orders to be received and to perform handoffsto other couriers.

In addition, the one or more computational models 528 may also be usedby preparation time and pickup time determining logic 542 fordetermining predicted item preparation times 532 for the items offeredby merchants in a merchant group 530 and/or 514. The predicted itempreparation times 532 may include the time for preparing the item, suchas cooking, as well as the time for packaging an item for transport. Forinstance, the preparation time and pickup time determining logic 542 mayreceive order information 544 for a current order, such as merchantidentity, items ordered, etc. Further, in some examples, the preparationtime and pickup time determining logic 542 may receive a currentmerchant load 546 for at least the merchants identified in the orderinformation 544.

The preparation time and pickup time determining logic 542 may use oneor more computational models 528 to determine the predicted itempreparation times 532 of various different items corresponding to theorder information 544. For instance, the predicted preparation times 532may be based at least in part on the item preparation times 512indicated in the merchant historic information 502. Additionally, insome examples, the predicted preparation times 532 may be determinedbased at least in part on the current merchant load 546. For example, bycomparing the current merchant load 546 with the historic merchant orderloads 510 and the item preparation times 512 item corresponding to thehistoric order loads 510, the one or more computational models 528 maydetermine current predicted item preparation times 532 for particularitems ordered in the order information 544. From these preparationtimes, the preparation time and pickup time determining logic 542 maydetermine targeted pickup times 548 for each item in an order.

As one example, the computational model(s) 528 may include one or moretrained statistical models that account for numerous pieces ofinformation included in the past order information 148, as well ascurrent information, such as time, day and date information, orderinformation 544 and/or current merchant load 546. In some cases, the oneor more statistical models may be initially trained using a set oftraining data, checked for accuracy, and then used for determining atleast one of predicted preparation times based on a confidence scoreexceeding a specified threshold of confidence. The statistical model(s)may be periodically updated and re-trained based on new training data tokeep the model(s) up to date and accurate. Examples of suitablestatistical models that may be incorporated into the computationalmodel(s) 528 herein may include regression models, such as linear andnonlinear regression models, and stochastic models, such as Markovmodels, hidden Markov models, and so forth.

Additionally, while the computational models 528 have been described asone example of a technique for determining predicted preparation times532 and/or merchant groups 530 and/or recommended handoff locations 540,numerous other techniques, algorithms, decision-making rules, and thelike, may additionally, or alternatively, be used for determining thisinformation. Accordingly, implementations herein are not limited to useof a computational model 528.

After the preparation time and pickup time determining logic 542 hasdetermined, for the current order information 544, predicted itempreparation times 532 the combined ordering module 150 may apply thepreparation time and pickup time determining logic 542 to determinewhich merchant to send a request for pickup time for a particular item.In some examples, the preparation time and pickup time determining logic542 may include one or more algorithms, one or more computationalmodels, a plurality of decision-making rules, business rules, or thelike, configured to manage preparation timing of a plurality of items inan order. For instance, the preparation time and pickup time determininglogic 542 may employ the techniques discussed above to determine by whattime when each merchant should have each respective item prepared.

Similarly, in the case that two different buyers place orders that areclose in time, e.g., the orders are received within a threshold time ofeach other, such as five minutes, the preparation time and pickup timedetermining logic 542 may determine that preparation of one of the itemsmay be delayed slightly so that the two items can be picked up togetherby a single courier. Additionally, or alternatively, the handoff of theitems can be timed so that the items are both at the handoff location atthe same time and able to be picked up together by a second courier,such as in the case that the delivery location of the first order iswithin a threshold proximity of the delivery location of the secondorder.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are flow diagrams illustrating example processes accordingto some implementations. The processes are illustrated as collections ofblocks in logical flow diagrams, which represent a sequence ofoperations, some or all of which can be implemented in hardware,software or a combination thereof. In the context of software, theblocks may represent computer-executable instructions stored on one ormore computer-readable media that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, program the processors to perform the recited operations.Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular data types. The order inwhich the blocks are described should not be construed as a limitation.Any number of the described blocks can be combined in any order and/orin parallel to implement the process, or alternative processes, and notall of the blocks need be executed. For discussion purposes, theprocesses are described with reference to the environments, systems anddevices described in the examples herein, although the processes may beimplemented in a wide variety of other environments, systems anddevices.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 600 enablingordering of items from multiple merchants for combined deliveryaccording to some implementations. In some examples, the process may beexecuted at least in part by the service computing device 102.

At 602, the service computing device may determine that pickup locationsof a subset of a plurality of merchants are within a threshold distanceof each other for determining a combined ordering group of merchants.For example, the service computing device may use clustering techniquesor other suitable techniques to identify merchants within a thresholddistance of each other.

At 604, the service computing device may send, to a buyer device, iteminformation and an indication that orders for items provided by thesubset of merchants are available for combined delivery.

At 606, the service computing device may receive, from the buyer device,an order for a first item offered by a first merchant of the group ofmerchants and a second item offered by a second merchant of the group ofmerchants.

At 608, the service computing device may determine a predicted firstpreparation time for the first item and a predicted second preparationtime for the second item. In some examples, the service computing devicemay receive merchant information from the merchant devices indicatingcurrent loads on each of the merchants. The service computing device maycompare the current loads with past loads and may determine itempreparation times associated with similar past loads to determinepredicted item preparation times for the first item and the second item.

At 610, based on the first item having a longer predicted preparationtime than the second item, the service computing device may send, to thefirst merchant, a request for a first preparation time for the firstitem.

At 612, in response to receiving a confirmed first pickup time from thefirst merchant, the service computing device may send, to the secondmerchant, a request for a second preparation time for the second item.For instance, the service computing device may receive, from the firstmerchant device, a confirmed first pickup time that includes at leastone of a confirmation of the first pickup time proposed by the serviceprovider or a revised first pickup time proposed by the first merchantfor the first item.

At 614, the service computing device may receive confirmation and/or arevised pickup time for the second item. For instance, the servicecomputing device may receive, from the second merchant device, aconfirmed second pickup time that includes at least one of aconfirmation of the second pickup time proposed by the service provideror a revised second pickup time proposed by the second merchant for thesecond item.

At 616, if a revised second item pickup time exceeds the first itempickup time by a threshold amount, the service computing device may sendan updated first item pickup time to first merchant. As one example, ifthe revised pickup time for the second item is 10 minutes or more afterthe confirmed pickup time for the first item, the service computingdevice may send an updated first item pickup time to the first merchantto delay the preparation of the first item so that the first item andthe second item will be ready for pickup at approximately the same time.

At 618, the service computing device may send, to a first courier,information for picking up the first item from the first merchant andthe second item from the second merchant. For example, the informationmay include the name and/or pickup location of the first merchant, thename and/or pickup location of the second merchant, may identify theitems being picked up from each merchant, and may indicate at least onepickup time, such as the first confirmed pickup time or the secondconfirmed pickup time, which in some cases may be the same time.

At 620, the service computing device may send, to a second courier,information related to picking up the first item and the second itemfrom the first courier, and a delivery location to which to deliver thefirst item and second item. For instance, the information may providethe geographic location of the handoff location at which the secondcourier is to pick up the items. In some examples, the handoff locationmay be stationed by a third courier. Thus, the service computing devicemay determine, based on location information received from a GPSreceiver associated with a third courier device associated with thethird courier, an indicated geographic location associated with thethird courier device. Further, the service computing device may send, toat least one of the first courier device or the second courier device,an indication that the handoff location is the indicated geographiclocation of the third courier device. In addition, the service computingdevice may send, to the third courier device, information about thefirst item and the second item being delivered to the handoff locationby the first courier, and an indication of a timing for the secondcourier to pick up the first item and the second item from the handofflocation.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process 700 fordetermining a combined ordering merchant group according to someimplementations. In some examples, the process may be executed, at leastin part, by the service computing device 102 or by another suitablecomputing device. Some or all of the process 700 may be combined withthe process 600 in some examples.

At 702, the service computing device may receive, from a plurality ofmerchant devices, respective electronic communications indicatingrespective pickup locations associated with respective merchants of theplurality of merchants. In some examples, the service computing devicemay receive GPS location information from at least some of the merchantdevices.

At 704, the service computing device may determine a group of therespective pickup locations within a threshold distance of each other.As discussed above, in some examples, the service computing device mayemploy clustering techniques or other suitable algorithms.

At 706, the service computing device may determine a recommended courierhandoff location based at least in part on the respective locations ofthe pickup locations in the group. In some examples, the recommendedhandoff location may be based at least in part on a geographic centroidof the group.

At 708, the service computing device may send, to a courier device, atleast one of information about the group, or the recommended courierhandoff location. In some cases, the courier may establish the handofflocation based on the recommended handoff location. In other cases, thecourier may use his or her own judgement as to where to locate thehandoff location and may provide GPS information to the servicecomputing device to indicate the handoff location.

At 710, the service computing device may send, to a buyer device, iteminformation indicating that items ordered from merchants correspondingto the pickup locations in the group are available for combineddelivery. For example, in response, at least in part, to the sending ofthe item information, the buyer device may be programmed to presentinformation related to the items offered by the group of merchants withan indication that the items offered by the group of merchants areavailable for combined delivery. Additionally, if a new merchant isadded to the group, the item information may be updated to include itemsoffered by the new merchant. For example, the service computing devicemay receive additional location information from a merchant deviceassociated with another merchant who has moved closer to at least onepickup location of a merchant in the group. The service computing devicemay determine that a pickup location associated with the other merchantis within the threshold distance of the pickup locations of all themerchant in the group, and may include information related to itemsoffered by the other merchant with the item information sent to thebuyer device indicating that items ordered from the group of merchantscorresponding to the pickup locations are available for combineddelivery.

The example processes described herein are only examples of processesprovided for discussion purposes. Numerous other variations will beapparent to those of skill in the art in light of the disclosure herein.Additionally, while the disclosure herein sets forth several examples ofsuitable frameworks, architectures and environments for executing theprocesses, implementations herein are not limited to the particularexamples shown and discussed. Furthermore, this disclosure providesvarious example implementations, as described and as illustrated in thedrawings. However, this disclosure is not limited to the implementationsdescribed and illustrated herein, but can extend to otherimplementations, as would be known or as would become known to thoseskilled in the art.

FIG. 8 illustrates select components of the service computing device 102that may be used to implement some functionality of the combined orderprocessing services described herein. The service computing device 102may include one or more servers or other types of computing devices thatmay be embodied in any number of ways. For instance, in the case of aserver, the modules, other functional components, and data may beimplemented on a single server, a cluster of servers, a server farm ordata center, a cloud-hosted computing service, and so forth, althoughother computer architectures may additionally or alternatively be used.

Further, while the figures illustrate the components and data of theservice computing device 102 as being present in a single location,these components and data may alternatively be distributed acrossdifferent computing devices and different locations in any manner.Consequently, the functions may be implemented by one or more servicecomputing devices, with the various functionality described abovedistributed in various ways across the different computing devices.Multiple service computing devices 102 may be located together orseparately, and organized, for example, as virtual servers, serverbanks, and/or server farms. The described functionality may be providedby the servers of a single entity or enterprise, or may be provided bythe servers and/or services of multiple different entities orenterprises.

In the illustrated example, each service computing device 102 mayinclude one or more processors 802, one or more computer-readable media804, and one or more communication interfaces 806. Each processor 802may be a single processing unit or a number of processing units, and mayinclude single or multiple computing units or multiple processing cores.The processor(s) 802 can be implemented as one or more microprocessors,microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, centralprocessing units, state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devicesthat manipulate signals based on operational instructions. For instance,the processor(s) 802 may be one or more hardware processors and/or logiccircuits of any suitable type specifically programmed or configured toexecute the algorithms and processes described herein. The processor(s)802 can be configured to fetch and execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable media 804, which canprogram the processor(s) 802 to perform the functions described herein.

The computer-readable media 804 may include volatile and nonvolatilememory and/or removable and non-removable media implemented in any typeof technology for storage of information, such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Suchcomputer-readable media 804 may include, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, optical storage,solid state storage, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, RAID storagesystems, storage arrays, network attached storage, storage areanetworks, cloud storage, or any other medium that can be used to storethe desired information and that can be accessed by a computing device.Depending on the configuration of the service computing device 102, thecomputer-readable media 804 may be a type of computer-readable storagemedia and/or may be a tangible non-transitory media to the extent that,when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable media exclude mediasuch as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals perse.

The computer-readable media 804 may be used to store any number offunctional components that are executable by the processors 802. In manyimplementations, these functional components comprise instructions orprograms that are executable by the processors 802 and that, whenexecuted, specifically configure the one or more processors 802 toperform the actions attributed above to the service computing device102. Functional components stored in the computer-readable media 804 mayinclude the order processing module 140 and the combined ordering module150. Additional functional components stored in the computer-readablemedia 804 may include an operating system 808 for controlling andmanaging various functions of the service computing device 102.

In addition, the computer-readable media 804 may store data used forperforming the operations described herein. Thus, the computer-readablemedia 804 may store the buyer information 142, including buyer accounts810, the merchant information 144, including merchant accounts 812, andthe courier information 146, including courier accounts 814. Further,the computer-readable media 804 may include the past order information148, such as the merchant historic information 502, the buyer historicinformation 504, and the courier historic information 506. The servicecomputing device 102 may also include or maintain other functionalcomponents and data not specifically shown in FIG. 8, such as othermodules and data 816, which may include programs, drivers, etc., and thedata used or generated by the functional components. Further, theservice computing device 102 may include many other logical,programmatic, and physical components, of which those described aboveare merely examples that are related to the discussion herein.

The communication interface(s) 806 may include one or more interfacesand hardware components for enabling communication with various otherdevices, such as over the network(s) 106. For example, communicationinterface(s) 806 may enable communication through one or more of theInternet, cable networks, cellular networks, wireless networks (e.g.,Wi-Fi) and wired networks (e.g., fiber optic and Ethernet), as well asshort-range communications, such as BLUETOOTH®, BLUETOOTH® low energy,and the like, as additionally enumerated elsewhere herein.

The service computing device 102 may further be equipped with variousinput/output (I/O) devices 818. Such I/O devices 818 may include adisplay, various user interface controls (e.g., buttons, joystick,keyboard, mouse, touch screen, etc.), audio speakers, connection portsand so forth.

FIG. 9 illustrates select example components of an example merchantdevice 128 according to some implementations. The merchant device 128may be any suitable type of computing device, e.g., portable,semi-portable, semi-stationary, or stationary. Some examples of themerchant device 128 may include tablet computing devices; smart phonesand mobile communication devices; laptops, netbooks and other portablecomputers or semi-portable computers; desktop computing devices,terminal computing devices and other semi-stationary or stationarycomputing devices; dedicated register devices; wearable computingdevices, or other body-mounted computing devices; augmented realitydevices; or other computing devices capable of sending communicationsand performing the functions according to the techniques describedherein.

In the illustrated example, the merchant device 128 includes at leastone processor 902, one or more computer-readable media 904, one or morecommunication interfaces 906, and one or more input/output (I/O) devices908. Each processor 902 may itself comprise one or more processors orprocessing cores. For example, the processor 902 can be implemented asone or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digitalsignal processors, central processing units, state machines, logiccircuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based onoperational instructions. In some cases, the processor 902 may be one ormore hardware processors and/or logic circuits of any suitable typespecifically programmed or configured to execute the algorithms andprocesses described herein. The processor 902 can be configured to fetchand execute computer-readable processor-executable instructions storedin the computer-readable media 904.

Depending on the configuration of the merchant device 128, thecomputer-readable media 904 may be an example of tangible non-transitorycomputer storage media and may include volatile and nonvolatile memoryand/or removable and non-removable media implemented in any type oftechnology for storage of information such as computer-readableprocessor-executable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data. The computer-readable media 904 may include, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state storage,magnetic disk storage, optical storage, and/or other computer-readablemedia technology. Further, in some cases, the merchant device 128 mayaccess external storage, such as RAID storage systems, storage arrays,network attached storage, storage area networks, cloud storage, or anyother medium that can be used to store information and that can beaccessed by the processor 902 directly or through another computingdevice or network. Accordingly, the computer-readable media 904 may becomputer storage media able to store instructions, modules, orcomponents that may be executed by the processor 902. Further, whenmentioned, non-transitory computer-readable media exclude media such asenergy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

The computer-readable media 904 may be used to store and maintain anynumber of functional components that are executable by the processor902. In some implementations, these functional components compriseinstructions or programs that are executable by the processor 902 andthat, when executed, implement operational logic for performing theactions and services attributed above to the merchant device 128.Functional components of the merchant device 128 stored in thecomputer-readable media 904 may include the merchant application 130. Insome examples, the merchant application 130 may include transactionprocessing capability, such as for presenting an interface to enable themerchant to conduct transactions, receive payments, and so forth, aswell as communicating with the service computing device 102 forprocessing payments, sending transaction information, receiving orderinformation, sending merchant information, and so forth. Further, insome examples, the merchant application 130 may include merchantdashboard functionality, such as for presenting a GUI (not shown in FIG.9) to enable the merchant to manage the merchant's account, the merchantprofile, merchant preferences, view past orders, and the like.Additional functional components may include an operating system 910 forcontrolling and managing various functions of the merchant device 128and for enabling basic user interactions with the merchant device 128.

In addition, the computer-readable media 904 may also store data, datastructures and the like, that are used by the functional components. Forexample, data stored by the computer-readable media 904 may include iteminformation 912 that includes information about the items offered by themerchant, which may include images of the items, descriptions of theitems, prices of the items, preparation times for the items, and soforth. In addition, inventory information 914 may indicate how much ofeach item the merchant has in current inventory. Depending on the typeof the merchant device 128, the computer-readable media 904 may alsooptionally include other functional components and data, such as othermodules and data 916, which may include programs, drivers, etc., and thedata used or generated by the functional components. Further, themerchant device 128 may include many other logical, programmatic, andphysical components, of which those described are merely examples thatare related to the discussion herein.

The communication interface(s) 906 may include one or more interfacesand hardware components for enabling communication with various otherdevices, such as over the network(s) 106 or directly. For example,communication interface(s) 906 may enable communication through one ormore of the Internet, cable networks, cellular networks, wirelessnetworks (e.g., Wi-Fi) and wired networks, as well as short-rangecommunications such as Bluetooth®, Bluetooth® low energy, and the like,as additionally enumerated elsewhere herein.

FIG. 9 further illustrates that the merchant device 128 may include adisplay 918. Depending on the type of computing device used as themerchant device 128, the display 918 may employ any suitable displaytechnology, and may have a touch sensor in some examples. Alternatively,in some examples, the merchant device 128 may not include the display918, and information may be presented by other means, such as aurally.

The merchant device 128 may further include the one or more I/O devices908. The I/O devices 908 may include speakers, a microphone, a camera,and various user controls (e.g., buttons, a joystick, a keyboard, akeypad, etc.), a haptic output device, and so forth. In addition, insome examples, the I/O devices 908 may include a card reader. Forinstance, the card reader may plug in to a port in the merchant device,such as a microphone/headphone port, a data port, or other suitableport. The card reader may include a read head for reading a magneticstrip of a payment card, and further may include encryption technologyfor encrypting the information read from the magnetic strip.Additionally, or alternatively, numerous other types of card readers maybe employed with the merchant devices 104 herein, such as RFID chip cardreaders, depending on the type and configuration of the merchant device128.

Further, in some examples, the merchant device 128 may include a GPSreceiver 920, such as in the case that the merchant is a mobile merchantwho does not always conduct business in the same geographic location.The GPS receiver 920 may be used by the merchant application 130 todetermine a current geographic location of the merchant device 128.Additionally, or alternatively, the communication interfaces 906 may beused to determine the current location of the merchant device 128, suchas based on communication with nearby cell towers, wireless accesspoints, and the like. In some examples, the merchant application 130 maysend this location information periodically to the service computingdevice as an indicated location of the associated merchant.Additionally, the merchant device 128 may include various othercomponents that are not shown, examples of which include sensors,removable storage, a power source, such as a battery and power controlunit, and so forth.

FIG. 10 illustrates select example components of the buyer device 132that may implement the functionality described above according to someexamples. The buyer device 132 may be any of a number of different typesof computing devices. Some examples of the buyer device 132 may includesmart phones and mobile communication devices; tablet computing devices;laptops, netbooks and other portable computers; wearable computingdevices and/or body-mounted computing devices, which may include watchesand augmented reality devices, such as helmets, goggles or glasses; andany other portable device capable of sending communications andperforming the functions according to the techniques described herein.Further, in some examples, the buyer device 132 may be a stationary orsemi-stationary computing device, such as a desktop computer or otherdevice with computing capabilities.

In the example of FIG. 10, the buyer device 132 includes components suchas at least one processor 1002, one or more computer-readable media1004, one or more communication interfaces 1006, and one or moreinput/output (I/O) devices 1008. Each processor 1002 may itself compriseone or more processors or processing cores. For example, the processor1002 can be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers,microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units,state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulatesignals based on operational instructions. In some cases, the processor1002 may be one or more hardware processors and/or logic circuits of anysuitable type specifically programmed or configured to execute thealgorithms and processes described herein. The processor 1002 can beconfigured to fetch and execute computer-readable processor-executableinstructions stored in the computer-readable media 1004.

Depending on the configuration of the buyer device 132, thecomputer-readable media 1004 may be an example of tangiblenon-transitory computer storage media and may include volatile andnonvolatile memory and/or removable and non-removable media implementedin any type of technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable processor-executable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data. The computer-readable media 1004 mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory,solid-state storage, magnetic disk storage, optical storage, and/orother computer-readable media technology. Further, in some cases, thebuyer device 132 may access external storage, such as RAID storagesystems, storage arrays, network attached storage, storage areanetworks, cloud storage, or any other medium that can be used to storeinformation and that can be accessed by the processor 1002 directly orthrough another computing device or network. Accordingly, thecomputer-readable media 1004 may be computer storage media able to storeinstructions, modules, or components that may be executed by theprocessor 1002. Further, when mentioned, non-transitorycomputer-readable media exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

The computer-readable media 1004 may be used to store and maintain anynumber of functional components that are executable by the processor1002. In some implementations, these functional components compriseinstructions or programs that are executable by the processor 1002 andthat, when executed, implement operational logic for performing theactions and services attributed above to the buyer device 132.Functional components of the buyer device 132 stored in thecomputer-readable media 1004 may include the buyer application 134, asdiscussed above, which may present the buyer with one or more GUIs forplacing an order, some examples of which are described above. Additionalfunctional components may include an operating system 1010 forcontrolling and managing various functions of the buyer device 132 andfor enabling basic user interactions with the buyer device 132.

In addition, the computer-readable media 1004 may also store data, datastructures and the like, that are used by the functional components.Depending on the type of the buyer device 132, the computer-readablemedia 1004 may also optionally include other functional components anddata, such as other modules and data 1012, which may includeapplications, programs, drivers, etc., and the data used or generated bythe functional components. Further, the buyer device 132 may includemany other logical, programmatic, and physical components, of whichthose described are merely examples that are related to the discussionherein.

The communication interface(s) 1006 may include one or more interfacesand hardware components for enabling communication with various otherdevices, such as over the network(s) 106 or directly. For example,communication interface(s) 1006 may enable communication through one ormore of the Internet, cable networks, cellular networks, wirelessnetworks (e.g., Wi-Fi) and wired networks (e.g., fiber optic, Ethernet),as well as short-range communications such as BLUETOOTH®, BLUETOOTH® lowenergy, and the like, as additionally enumerated elsewhere herein.

FIG. 10 further illustrates that the buyer device 132 may include thedisplay 402, which may employ any suitable display technology. In someexamples, the display 402 may have a touch sensor to provide atouchscreen display. The buyer device 132 may further include the one ormore I/O devices 1008. The I/O devices 1008 may include speakers, amicrophone, a camera, and various user controls (e.g., buttons, ajoystick, a keyboard, a keypad, etc.), a haptic output device, and soforth. Other components included in the buyer device 132 may includevarious types of sensors, which may include a GPS receiver 1014 able toindicate location information, as well as other sensors (not shown) suchas an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, proximity sensor, and the like.In some cases, the GPS receiver 1014 may be used by the buyerapplication 134 to determine or confirm a current geographic location ofthe buyer device 132. Additionally, or alternatively, the communicationinterfaces 1006 may be used to determine the current location of thebuyer device 132, such as based on communication with nearby celltowers, wireless access points, and the like. In some examples, thebuyer application 134 may send this location information to the servicecomputing device as an indicated delivery location for the associatedbuyer. Additionally, the buyer device 132 may include various othercomponents that are not shown, examples of which include removablestorage, a power source, such as a battery and power control unit, andso forth.

FIG. 11 illustrates select example components of the courier device 136that may implement the functionality described above according to someexamples. The courier device 136 may be any of a number of differenttypes of portable computing devices. Some examples of the courier device136 may include smart phones and mobile communication devices; tabletcomputing devices; laptops, netbooks and other portable computers;wearable computing devices and/or body-mounted computing devices, whichmay include watches and augmented reality devices, such as helmets,goggles or glasses; and any other portable device capable of sendingcommunications and performing the functions according to the techniquesdescribed herein.

In the example of FIG. 11, the courier device 136 includes componentssuch as at least one processor 1102, one or more computer-readable media1104, one or more communication interfaces 1106, and one or moreinput/output (I/O) devices 1108. Each processor 1102 may itself compriseone or more processors or processing cores. For example, the processor1102 can be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers,microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units,state machines, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulatesignals based on operational instructions. In some cases, the processor1102 may be one or more hardware processors and/or logic circuits of anysuitable type specifically programmed or configured to execute thealgorithms and processes described herein. The processor 1102 can beconfigured to fetch and execute computer-readable processor-executableinstructions stored in the computer-readable media 1104.

Depending on the configuration of the courier device 136, thecomputer-readable media 1104 may be an example of tangiblenon-transitory computer storage media and may include volatile andnonvolatile memory and/or removable and non-removable media implementedin any type of technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable processor-executable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data. The computer-readable media 1104 mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory,solid-state storage, magnetic disk storage, optical storage, and/orother computer-readable media technology. Further, in some cases, thecourier device 136 may access external storage, such as RAID storagesystems, storage arrays, network attached storage, storage areanetworks, cloud storage, or any other medium that can be used to storeinformation and that can be accessed by the processor 1102 directly orthrough another computing device or network. Accordingly, thecomputer-readable media 1104 may be computer storage media able to storeinstructions, modules, or components that may be executed by theprocessor 1102. Further, when mentioned, non-transitorycomputer-readable media exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

The computer-readable media 1104 may be used to store and maintain anynumber of functional components that are executable by the processor1102. In some implementations, these functional components compriseinstructions or programs that are executable by the processor 1102 andthat, when executed, implement operational logic for performing theactions and services attributed above to the courier device 136.Functional components of the courier device 136 stored in thecomputer-readable media 1104 may include the courier application 138, asdiscussed above. Additional functional components may include anoperating system 1110 for controlling and managing various functions ofthe courier device 136 and for enabling basic user interactions with thecourier device 136.

In addition, the computer-readable media 1104 may also store data, datastructures and the like, that are used by the functional components.Depending on the type of the courier device 136, the computer-readablemedia 1104 may also optionally include other functional components anddata, such as other modules and data 1112, which may includeapplications, programs, drivers, etc., and the data used or generated bythe functional components. Further, the courier device 136 may includemany other logical, programmatic, and physical components, of whichthose described are merely examples that are related to the discussionherein.

The communication interface(s) 1106 may include one or more interfacesand hardware components for enabling communication with various otherdevices, such as over the network(s) 106 or directly. For example,communication interface(s) 1106 may enable communication through one ormore of the Internet, cable networks, cellular networks, wirelessnetworks (e.g., Wi-Fi) and wired networks (e.g., fiber optic, Ethernet),as well as close-range communications such as BLUETOOTH®, BLUETOOTH® lowenergy, and the like, as additionally enumerated elsewhere herein.

FIG. 11 further illustrates that the courier device 136 may include adisplay 1014, which may be the any of various types of displays. Thecourier device 136 may further include the one or more I/O devices 1108.The I/O devices 1108 may include speakers, a microphone, a camera, andvarious user controls (e.g., buttons, a joystick, a keyboard, a keypad,etc.), a haptic output device, and so forth. Other components includedin the courier device 136 may include various types of sensors, whichmay include a GPS receiver 1116 able to indicate location information,as well as other sensors (not shown) such as an accelerometer,gyroscope, compass, proximity sensor, and the like. In some cases, theGPS receiver 1116 may be used by the courier application 138 todetermine a current geographic location of the courier device 136.Additionally, or alternatively, the communication interfaces 1106 may beused to determine the current location of the courier device, such asbased on communication with nearby cell towers, wireless access points,and the like. In some examples, the courier application 138 may sendthis location information periodically to the service computing deviceas an indicated location of the associated courier. Additionally, thecourier device 136 may include various other components that are notshown, examples of which include removable storage, a power source, suchas a battery and power control unit, and so forth.

Various instructions, methods, and techniques described herein may beconsidered in the general context of computer-executable instructions,such as program modules stored on computer-readable media, and executedby the processor(s) herein. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., for performingparticular tasks or implementing particular abstract data types. Theseprogram modules, and the like, may be executed as native code or may bedownloaded and executed, such as in a virtual machine or otherjust-in-time compilation execution environment. Typically, thefunctionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed asdesired in various implementations. An implementation of these modulesand techniques may be stored on computer storage media or transmittedacross some form of communication media.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as example forms ofimplementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: determining, by one or moreprocessors, a first pickup location of a first merchant associated witha first merchant device; determining, by the one or more processors,based on location information received from a second merchant deviceassociated with a second merchant that the second merchant has locatedto have a second pickup location that is currently located within athreshold distance of the first pickup location of the first merchant;sending, by the one or more processors, to a buyer device, iteminformation about items offered by the first merchant and the secondmerchant, wherein, based at least in part on the second pickup locationbeing within the threshold distance of the first pickup location, theitem information sent to the buyer device causes an application on thebuyer device to present a user interface that displays at least a firstitem offered by the first merchant and a second item offered by thesecond merchant, and the user interface includes an indication thatorders for items from the first merchant and the second merchant areavailable for combined delivery; receiving, by the one or moreprocessors, from the buyer device, an order for the first item offeredby the first merchant and the second item offered by the secondmerchant; determining, by the one or more processors, that a predictedfirst preparation time for the first item is a longer preparation timeand a predicted second preparation time for the second item is a shorterpreparation time that is shorter than the longer preparation time; basedon determining that the predicted first preparation time for the firstitem is the longer preparation time, sending, by the one or moreprocessors, to the first merchant device associated with the firstmerchant, a first pickup time for the first item; based on determiningthat the predicted second preparation time for the second item is theshorter preparation time, sending, by the one or more processors, to thesecond merchant device associated with the second merchant, a secondpickup time for the second item, wherein the second pickup time for thesecond item is based at least in part on the first pickup time;determining, by the one or more processors, the predicted firstpreparation time for the first item by receiving an indication of afirst merchant load based at least in part on a number of ordersreceived and to be prepared by the first merchant, and comparing thefirst merchant load with past order information indicating preparationtimes for the first item associated with past first merchant loads todetermine the predicted first preparation time; determining, by the oneor more processors, the predicted second preparation time for the seconditem by receiving an indication of a second merchant load based at leastin part on a number of orders received and to be prepared by the secondmerchant, and comparing the second merchant load with past orderinformation indicating preparation times for the second item associatedwith past second merchant loads to determine the predicted secondpreparation time; determining, by the one or more processors, the firstpickup time based on a current time plus the predicted first preparationtime; sending, by the one or more processors, to a first courier deviceassociated with a first courier, information for picking up the firstitem at the first pickup time and the second item at the second pickuptime; sending, by the one or more processors, to a second courier deviceassociated with a second courier, an indication of a handoff locationfor picking up the first item and the second item, and an indication ofa delivery location associated with the buyer device; determining, bythe one or more processors, based on location information received froma GPS receiver of the first courier device, an indicated geographiclocation of the first courier device; and sending, by the one or moreprocessors, to the second courier device, an indication that the handofflocation is the indicated geographic location of the first courierdevice.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:determining, based on location information received from a GPS receiverof a third courier device associated with a third courier, an indicatedgeographic location of the third courier device; and sending, to thesecond courier device, an indication that the handoff location is theindicated geographic location of the third courier device.
 3. The methodas recited in claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from a pluralityof other merchant devices associated with a plurality of othermerchants, respective electronic communications indicating respectivepickup locations associated with respective merchants of the pluralityof other merchants; and determining that the respective pickup locationsare within the threshold distance of each other, the first pickuplocation, and the second pickup location based at least in part on thereceived electronic communications.
 4. The method as recited in claim 3,further comprising: determining a centroid of the respective pickuplocations, the first pickup location and the second pickup location;determining a recommended handoff location based at least in part on thecentroid; and sending the recommended handoff location to a courierdevice.
 5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:receiving additional location information from a third merchant deviceassociated with a third merchant who has moved closer to at least one ofthe first pickup location or the second pickup location; determiningthat a third pickup location associated with the third merchant iswithin the threshold distance of the first pickup location and thesecond pickup location; and sending updated item information to thebuyer device to include information related to a third item offered bythe third merchant with the item information about the first item andthe second item sent to the buyer device to cause the buyer device topresent a user interface on the buyer device indicating that that ordersfor items from the first merchant, the second merchant, and the thirdmerchant are available for combined delivery.
 6. The method as recitedin claim 1, further comprising determining the second pickup locationbased at least in part on location information determined via a GPSreceiver of the second merchant device.
 7. A system comprising one ormore processors configured by executable instructions to performoperations comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, afirst pickup location of a first merchant associated with a firstmerchant device; determining, by the one or more processors, based onlocation information received from a second merchant device associatedwith a second merchant that the second merchant has located to have asecond pickup location that is currently located within a thresholddistance of the first pickup location of the first merchant; sending, bythe one or more processors, to a buyer device, item information aboutitems offered by the first merchant and the second merchant, wherein,based at least in part on the second pickup location being within thethreshold distance of the first pickup location, the item informationsent to the buyer device causes an application on the buyer device topresent a user interface that displays at least a first item offered bythe first merchant and a second item offered by the second merchant, andthe user interface includes an indication that orders for items from thefirst merchant and the second merchant are available for combineddelivery; receiving, by the one or more processors, from the buyerdevice, an order for the first item offered by the first merchant andthe second item offered by the second merchant; determining, by the oneor more processors, that a predicted first preparation time for thefirst item is a longer preparation time and a predicted secondpreparation time for the second item is a shorter preparation time thatis shorter than the longer preparation time; based on determining thatthe predicted first preparation time for the first item is the longerpreparation time, sending, by the one or more processors, to the firstmerchant device associated with the first merchant, a first pickup timefor the first item; based on determining that the predicted secondpreparation time for the second item is the shorter preparation time,sending, by the one or more processors, to the second merchant deviceassociated with the second merchant, a second pickup time for the seconditem, wherein the second pickup time for the second item is based atleast in part on the first pickup time; determining, by the one or moreprocessors, the predicted first preparation time for the first item byreceiving an indication of a first merchant load based at least in parton a number of orders received and to be prepared by the first merchant,and comparing the first merchant load with past order informationindicating preparation times for the first item associated with pastfirst merchant loads to determine the predicted first preparation time;determining, by the one or more processors, the predicted secondpreparation time for the second item by receiving an indication of asecond merchant load based at least in part on a number of ordersreceived and to be prepared by the second merchant, and comparing thesecond merchant load with past order information indicating preparationtimes for the second item associated with past second merchant loads todetermine the predicted second preparation time; determining, by the oneor more processors, the first pickup time based on a current time plusthe predicted first preparation time; sending, by the one or moreprocessors, to a first courier device associated with a first courier,information for picking up the first item at the first pickup time andthe second item at the second pickup time; sending, by the one or moreprocessors, to a second courier device associated with a second courier,an indication of a handoff location for picking up the first item andthe second item, and an indication of a delivery location associatedwith the buyer device; determining, by the one or more processors, basedon location information received from a GPS receiver of the firstcourier device, an indicated geographic location of the first courierdevice; and sending, by the one or more processors, to the secondcourier device, an indication that the handoff location is the indicatedgeographic location of the first courier device.
 8. The system asrecited in claim 7, the operations further comprising: determining,based on location information received via a GPS receiver of a thirdcourier device associated with a third courier, an indicated geographiclocation of the third courier device; and sending, to the second courierdevice, an indication that the handoff location is the indicatedgeographic location of the third courier device.
 9. The system asrecited in claim 7, the operations further comprising: receiving, from aplurality of other merchant devices associated with a plurality of othermerchants, respective electronic communications indicating respectivepickup locations associated with respective merchants of the pluralityof other merchants; and determining that the respective pickup locationsare within the threshold distance of each other, the first pickuplocation, and the second pickup location based at least in part on thereceived electronic communications.
 10. The system as recited in claim9, the operations further comprising: determining a centroid of therespective pickup locations, the first pickup location and the secondpickup location; determining a handoff location based at least in parton the centroid; and sending the handoff location to the first courierdevice.
 11. The system as recited in claim 7, the operations furthercomprising: receiving additional location information from a thirdmerchant device associated with a third merchant who has moved closer toat least one of the first pickup location or the second pickup location;determining that a third pickup location associated with the thirdmerchant is within the threshold distance of the first pickup locationand the second pickup location; and sending updated item information tothe buyer device to include information related to a third item offeredby the third merchant with the item information about the first item andthe second item sent to the buyer device to cause the buyer device topresent a user interface on the buyer device indicating that that ordersfor items from the first merchant, the second merchant, and the thirdmerchant are available for combined delivery.
 12. The system as recitedin claim 7, the operations further comprising determining the secondpickup location based at least in part on location informationdetermined via a GPS receiver of the second merchant device.
 13. One ormore non-transitory computer-readable media maintaining instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, program the one or moreprocessors to perform operations comprising: determining, by the one ormore processors, a first pickup location of a first merchant associatedwith a first merchant device; determining, by the one or moreprocessors, based on location information received from a secondmerchant device associated with a second merchant that the secondmerchant has located to have a second pickup location that is currentlylocated within a threshold distance of the first pickup location of thefirst merchant; sending, by the one or more processors, to a buyerdevice, item information about items offered by the first merchant andthe second merchant, wherein, based at least in part on the secondpickup location being within the threshold distance of the first pickuplocation, the item information sent to the buyer device causes anapplication on the buyer device to present a user interface thatdisplays at least a first item offered by the first merchant and asecond item offered by the second merchant, and the user interfaceincludes an indication that orders for items from the first merchant andthe second merchant are available for combined delivery; receiving, bythe one or more processors, from the buyer device, an order for thefirst item offered by the first merchant and the second item offered bythe second merchant; determining, by the one or more processors, that apredicted first preparation time for the first item is a longerpreparation time and a predicted second preparation time for the seconditem is a shorter preparation time that is shorter than the longerpreparation time; based on determining that the predicted firstpreparation time for the first item is the longer preparation time,sending, by the one or more processors, to the first merchant deviceassociated with the first merchant, a first pickup time for the firstitem; based on determining that the predicted second preparation timefor the second item is the shorter preparation time, sending, by the oneor more processors, to the second merchant device associated with thesecond merchant, a second pickup time for the second item, wherein thesecond pickup time for the second item is based at least in part on thefirst pickup time; determining, by the one or more processors, thepredicted first preparation time for the first item by receiving anindication of a first merchant load based at least in part on a numberof orders received and to be prepared by the first merchant, andcomparing the first merchant load with past order information indicatingpreparation times for the first item associated with past first merchantloads to determine the predicted first preparation time; determining, bythe one or more processors, the predicted second preparation time forthe second item by receiving an indication of a second merchant loadbased at least in part on a number of orders received and to be preparedby the second merchant, and comparing the second merchant load with pastorder information indicating preparation times for the second itemassociated with past second merchant loads to determine the predictedsecond preparation time; determining, by the one or more processors, thefirst pickup time based on a current time plus the predicted firstpreparation time; sending, by the one or more processors, to a firstcourier device associated with a first courier, information for pickingup the first item at the first pickup time and the second item at thesecond pickup time; sending, by the one or more processors, to a secondcourier device associated with a second courier, an indication of ahandoff location for picking up the first item and the second item, andan indication of a delivery location associated with the buyer device;determining, by the one or more processors, based on locationinformation received from a GPS receiver of the first courier device, anindicated geographic location of the first courier device; and sending,by the one or more processors, to the second courier device, anindication that the handoff location is the indicated geographiclocation of the first courier device.
 14. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media as recited in claim 13, the operations furthercomprising: determining, based on location information received from aGPS receiver of a third courier device associated with a third courier,an indicated geographic location of the third courier device; andsending, to the second courier device, an indication that the handofflocation is the indicated geographic location of the third courierdevice.
 15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media asrecited in claim 13, the operations further comprising: receiving, froma plurality of other merchant devices associated with a plurality ofother merchants, respective electronic communications indicatingrespective pickup locations associated with respective merchants of theplurality of other merchants; and determining that the respective pickuplocations are within the threshold distance of each other, the firstpickup location, and the second pickup location based at least in parton the received electronic communications.
 16. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, theoperations further comprising: determining a centroid of the respectivepickup locations, the first pickup location and the second pickuplocation; determining a recommended handoff location based at least inpart on the centroid; and sending the recommended handoff location to acourier device.
 17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia as recited in claim 13, the operations further comprising:receiving additional location information from a third merchant deviceassociated with a third merchant who has moved closer to at least one ofthe first pickup location or the second pickup location; determiningthat a third pickup location associated with the third merchant iswithin the threshold distance of the first pickup location and thesecond pickup location; and sending updated item information to thebuyer device to include information related to a third item offered bythe third merchant with the item information about the first item andthe second item sent to the buyer device to cause the buyer device topresent a user interface on the buyer device indicating that that ordersfor items from the first merchant, the second merchant, and the thirdmerchant are available for combined delivery.
 18. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, theoperations further comprising determining the second pickup locationbased at least in part on location information determined via a GPSreceiver of the second merchant device.